This is how masterpieces are made!

This is Adam Kirilenko, a famous photo-artist from Kamchatka and a very experienced traveler. At 72, Adam is hiking up volcanoes and spends months in the harsh taiga environment. Nowadays we are sharing one of the cabins at this ranger station. Adam does not trust the internet that much, but I am hoping to convince him to share some of his art with you who are reading this blog.


And this morning we saw this full rainbow over the Kuril Lake.

Originally posted at Радуга над Курильским озером.
and Вот так создаются шедевры.

Settling at a new place.

In the center of the picture is the Grassy Cape with a ranger station and a visitor station on it.

Yesterday I arrived at my new place of work. Actually, it is a old new place, because in the past years I spent many months working as a ranger on the Kuril Lake in Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge. I've in different parts of the Refuge in different seasons. Here in my blog I published many stories about this place and even wrote a photo-book about this lake. My colleage and very talented photographer, Alexey Bezrukov, wrote a lot about this lake too when he spent two years here with his family also working as a ranger. I bet that both Alexey and his wife Tatyana are missing local bears on their new assignment on the Baikal Lake.

The ranger station at the Grassy Cape is my favorite place on the Kuril Lake. This place has the highest density of brown bears in Russia. During this year there were over a thousand bears recorded around the lake. Even with my own eyes I've seen over a hundred of bears per day on many occasions. Even today I've seen at least couple of dosens of them from the window. Therefore in the coming weeks prepare yourself to see many bears in my blog!

How did I end up coming here to work? Well, the tourists season is coming to an end. The season of bad weather is coming. The rangers who work here are going to take vacations during this time. Fall with it's «nasty» weather is my favorite time of year. So I am taking this opportunity to substitute unti the winter comes. In addition to being my favorite place during my favorite weather, this ranger station has the fastest sattelite internet setup in the whole park. That means that you will learn about the local wildlife news in real time!


On this picture you can see the whole station: on the left there are two ranger houses. The larger building to the right is a hotel for visitors. All the buildings are connected by wooden trails. The green square is a helipad.

It is real winter on the mountaintops already...

Yesterday on my way to the Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge I saw Gorelyi Volcano. Everyting that is above 16 hundred feet is already white with snow.

Originally posted at На вулканах уже зима...

Good morning from the headquarters of Kronotsky Nature Reserve!

It is rainy here in Kamchatka; the mountain and volcano tops are covered with snow. Very slowly, typhoon is exhausting itself. For three weeks I was not able to go one place in the Kamchatka peninsula that I dreamt about.

This is a photo from my archive. Fox's "yoga" stretch.

Originally posted by at Доброе утро из конторы Кроноцкого заповедника!

"There, on those mysterious trails, are tracks of beasts you'll never meet..."

My curious readers were asking about the ribbon of trails on the aerial photo of Uzon Caldera in previous post. It is wooden trails that are designed both to protect the fragile soils in Kronotsky nature reserve and to protect visitors for the hidden dangers of volcanic environment. The tourists should always stay on the trails when they are visiting the Valley of Gaysers, the Uzon Caldera and other famous places.

Construction and maintenance of such trails are extremely expensive given the fact that all the wooden planks can only be transported by helicopter... Keep in mind that these trails are also widely used by "the locals".









Originally posted by at Там на неведомых дорожках следы невиданных зверей...

Caldera of Uzon Volcano.

This is Chloride Lake in Uzon Caldera as it can be seen from a landing helicopter.



And this is a ranger station in Uzon Calder.

Morning on Kuril Lake.

Currently I am working as a ranger without a ranger station at Kronotsky Biosphere Reserve: I am accompanying helicopters with tourists and various cargos. All the photos I’ve taken so far were taken on the way. And there was only one morning that I spent outside the city, yesterday morning. It was in Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge at Kuril Lake.

Kamchatkan fall as seen from a helicopter.

Air way from Petropavlovs-Kamchatsky to Kronotsky nature reserve passes by Karymsky volcano. It is the smallest volcano (1,536 m or 5,039 ft), but the most "hard-working" one.



Click below to see several more areal pictures of the fall colors this year in Kamchatka.



Fall 2012 on volcanic plateau.


Under fall clouds.

Fish for breakfast.

Originally posted by at Рыбный завтрак.

Protected river - Kronotskaya.

Upper reaches of Kronotskaya river near Kronotsky volcano (Kronotskaya sopka).


The lower reaches by Pacific ocean.

Originally posted by at Заповедная река Кроноцкая

Fall in alpine tundra.

Originally posted by at Осень в горных тундрах.

Kamchatka dreams... In less than a day they should come true...

Originally posted by at Камчатские сны...

White birds.

Two large white birds live in my backyard and fish in my pond nowadays. The stork (right) was brought in by people. He was misfortunate to get caught in abandoned water tower not far from Suzemka. We do not know how he got in and how long was he there without food or water. He became so week, that he was not able to follow other storks that migrated south in a second half of August. Even now, after a week of nourishing diet he still doesn't fly.

And egret (left), a rare bird for Bryansk region, came by himself: he got interested in abundance of fish in the pond. He learned that the dog and people are not posing a danger here, and now he is always full. The migration south for egrets will start later.


Originally posted by at Две белые птицы.

Good morning from Bryansk Forest!

Back in the beginning of June a strike of lightening burned down equipment for my satellite internet (nothing else is available in my village), but since then I was not in a hurry to restore the access: all my energy was directed on completing the construction project on my house. As a result the living area doubled! Now my children will each have their separate rooms, and both my wife and I will have a spacious home office. There is still some finishing left – but it is not my job to do the painting. This week specialists changed my Internet equipment – so I am back online, and hopefully will be able to post more regularly from now on.

My cameras almost got rusted waiting for me to finish building extention to my house: only recently I took them out of the boxes and started exercising to get back into professional photographer shape. Every morning I ride my horse Aza in local jungles. It is not summer here anymore, but not autumn either. A wonderful time: not a single mosquito, ripen apples and water in the river is still warm enough for swimming. Nevertheless I will soon be leaving home to go far away…

Photos: Nerussa River water meadows yesterday.

 

It is raining but we keep working!

Rains are common in Kenozero area - every evening we get summer showers and beautiful rainbows. This weather may be attractive for visiting photographers, but local people need to store hay for long winter. They are not impressed with dramatic weather. They cock hay in regular stacks in dry weather, and when it's rainy, they make "zarods" - that are long and narrow stocks that are very well ventilated so hay finishes drying in them. Zarod's are ricked even during white nights to finish before rain. Damp hay sometimes mix with salt - locals say that cows find it tasty.


Teding the hay.


This is zarod - a stack for wet weather.


And these are regular stacks near Glazovo chapel - they were made in sunny weather.

Originally posted by at Дождь идет, а мы скирдуем:).

Good morning from Kenozero!

It’s been such a long time since I updated my blog! I was building an extension to my house (that ended up being larger than the original building). If you remember, I have promised myself not to touch my camera or go online before I finish with construction work. On top of that promise, in the middle of June, a lightening strike has burned down the satellite internet equipment and I was completely cut off from civilization (mobile connection is very weak and unstable in my village in Bryansk Forest).

Now, since I’ve completed the roof on the new part of the house and only interior work is left to finish, I decided to take a small break and visit the North, my favorite place on Earth along with Bryansk Forest and Kamchatka.

This is Kenozerje, surroundings of the lakes Kenozero and Lekshmozero in Kargopolsky and Pletsetsky region in Archangelsk oblast. This is a land of harsh northern climate but it has been developed by generations of brave local people. Nowhere else in Russia can you feel such a strong historic atmosphere and culture. Past century wars did not come so far north with their destruction and, therefore some of the wooden houses, chapels and other buildings over hundred years old survived here as well as patriarchal life style.




I did not visit Kenozerje for eight years and now I live in a tent near a village Glazovo. This is not a first time that I am telling you about Kenozerskyi National park and about this village, at the link you can read my previous post at this link. My tent is hidden in the middle of this summer blossoms. Interestingly, cell phone coverage is pretty good over here, and on the top of the hill I even get relatively fast internet. Therefore I will share some of my photos with you.

Originally posted by at Доброе утро из Кенозерья!

Beach vacation season.

Last week life brought me to US for a short time, and right now I am living in Miami, very close to warm Atlantic ocean. The smell and noise of the ocean, the cries of seagulls stired up my memories about another ocean, about other beaches, where the ice floes should be melting on the black volcanic sand now. Where you can go for several months without seeing a human footprint. There are only brown bears swimming and relaxing under soft northern sun there.

My little fox-friend, Alisa, in winter and summer outfits.

Originally posted by at Алиса зимой и летом.

Frosty mornings in Kamchatka

The coldest time of the day is just before the daybreak. But it is also the most beautiful, mystic and photogenic. Here are several early morning photos from my last year wintering in Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Kamchatka.

On the top photo there is a larch tree with an ospray (or sea hawk) nest on the foreground and Kronotsky volcano in the background.


Eruption of Kizimen volcano. It is still erupting, but much less intense than last year.


Larch forest on the banks of Kronotsky Lake.

Frosty morning.

Originally posted by at Морозным утром.

Portraits of Mary of Kronotsky Nature Reserve.

Today I checked my photo-archive to see what was I photographing last January. And it turns out, I was working on portraits of Mary, my female moose neighbor at Kronotsky Nature Reserve ranger station. How is she doing there this winter?









Originally posted by at Портреты кроноцкой Машеньки.

Waiting for the summer...

And this is the owner of the nest.



Originally posted by at В ожидании лета...

Wolverine in twilight.

For several years I haven't been outside of Russia - Kamchatka was the only thing on my mind and it was taking up all my time and resourses. But finally I decided and visited a photo-festival in Germany last week. I made two presentations there in front of different audiences and noticed that this photo of a wolverine caused a unanimous "aaaah" in both cases.

I remembered that I did not show this photo in my online journal, so here it is...

Originally posted by at Росомаха в сумерках.

"Frozen" sea eagle.

This is a story from last year wintering in Kamchatka.

It is a bright and fresh December morning with the temperature somewhere below -13F (-25C). But the sun is rising, so it's getting slightly warmer. I am pacing along the banks of Kronotskaya river, if I'd walk slower my feet would freeze in my rain boots. The fog is coming from the water. Large fish is leaving crease marks on the surface - the coho salmon ruts are still going upstream for spawning. Next to the spawning ground, on top of an old Erman's birch tree I see tree Steller's sea eagles sleeping. As I approach two of them fly away. When I come closer I notice that the bird that stayed did not even move: his head was under a wing, just as a common village rooster.

"The eagle must be dead," - I'm thinking -